The present invention generally relates to a portable aircraft landing zone marker and, more particularly, to a helicopter night landing zone marker which is adapted to hold a chemiluminescent light element.
Helicopters have played an important role in emergency air transport programs, particularly in the delivery of emergency medical services. Most particularly, the helicopter has been used to an increasing degree in association with hospital trauma centers.
The chief advantage of helicopter use in emergency medical transport is time. The shorter the time it takes to get care to the patient, the more successful emergency medical treatment is likely to be. Another advantage of helicopter use is its greater access to locations which cannot be reached by land vehicles.
When a particular emergency medical situation presents itself, and where helicopter transport will be utilized, preparations must be taken by ground personnel before arrival of the helicopter. A safe landing zone must be made available to the helicopter. This involves providing an open area, free of light objects which are capable of being blown away "sandblasted" by wind created by the helicopter rotor. "Sandblasting" has caused injuries to ground personnel as a result of relatively light objects being swept upward and away from the helicopter during landing.
Circumstances are more complex during a helicopter night landing. The pilot, even with the aid of the helicopter's spotlight, has difficulty in guaging when landing "touchdown" will be made. This problem exists because the pilot has no known ground reference source to determine the altitude of the helicopter immediately before "touchdown". A second problem is that ground personnel are unable to fully clear light objects from the landing zone without adequate lighting.
Ground personnel have generally employed motor vehicles, so that the vehicles headlights would illuminate a night landing zone. Positioning the vehicles as such, however, makes them unavailable for other uses during the emergency situation. While, headlight illumination helps the pilot to see the landing site, the pilot still has difficulty in judging touchdown of the helicopter.
Road hazard flares have also been used to mark night landing zones. However, the flares create a risk of combustion of such materials as spilt gasoline and dry fieldgrass. This is an additional and unnecessary peril. Even where there is no risk of combustion the road flares are often sandblasted and thereby create a risk to attendent personnel.
Use of chemiluminescent flares has remedied the risk of combustion. And stakes have been utilized to secure these flares to the ground to prevent the effect of sandblasting. Where extra care has not been taken to secure the stakes, the occurance of sandblasting has remained. Additionally, some landing zone surface conditions prevent the use of stakes, either where the surface conditons are loosely granular or paved roadways. These and other difficulties experienced in the past have been obviated by the present invention.
It is, therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a portable weighted landing zone marker which includes a light emiting element for providing a night landing zone under low light conditions.
A further object of the invention is to provide a portable aircraft night landing zone marker capable of being stored in emergency land vehicles.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a weighted night landing zone marker which is resistent to the effect of high winds.
It is another object of the invention to provide a weighted landing zone marker for helicopter night landings which is resistent to being sandblasted.
With these and other objects in view, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention resides in the combination of elements and conditions set forth in the specification and covered by the claims appended hereto.